2027 USBA Awards Night

The Clay Rush Memorial Tin Gloves

While the days of Clay Rush being a terrible fielder are behind us, we will never forget the legacy that he bestowed upon the league. To honor his contributions to the league as a terrible fielder the Tin Glove Awards have been named after him and the nearly -100 ZR he racked up playing CF for Kingston Township for all those years. These awards are handed out to the worst fielder at every position. We have a lot of new entrants this year, but no matter if the name is familiar or not, you can be sure that they were truly dreadful at catching the ball for the team that was unlucky enough to employ them.

C – Eddie Flynn, CHG – The award for the worst catcher going to Flynn who managed to rack up a -4.5 ZR while sitting behind the plate. No one else was with 2 ZR of him, so it’s safe to say he won the award comfortably.

1B – Mario Ramos, GRA – What might be one of the easiest positions to play proved to be the exact opposite of that for Ramos. Ramos managed to rack up a -7.9 ZR during the season leading the way for all 1B in every league.

2B – Raul Delgado, PORT – For the second straight year Portland is taking home this award, but shockingly they tried someone new at this position and they were just as dreadful. Delgado topped -11 ZR during the season and continues the recent trend of terrible 2B for the LOU/PORT franchise. (See Andres Rodriguez and Roland Deschain.)

3B – Herman Hayes, PC – This was a very, very close race, but not the kind of close race you would want to be included in. Herman Hayes for PC just grabbed the titled over Ricardo Cardenas for Buckhead. Hayes ended up with a -16.1 ZR while Cardenas could only muster a measly -15.1 ZR. Hayes was so bad at fielding that OSA has taken away his position rating.

SS – Hank Wilder, NA – Normally we see some truly dreadful performances by SS as it is such a hard position to field well. Surprisingly, this year is an exception with no one getting over -8 ZR. While you would think this might be enough for us to give SS a round of applause, you would be wrong, as someone must win this award. Wilder captured the award with a -7.3 ZR.

LF – Sergio Munoz, PC – Sadly, PC is making another entry onto this list. To say the left side of the field was wide open for hitters is maybe a bit of an understatement as Hayes and Munoz combined to be exceedingly ineffective. Munoz did fair a bit better though only accumulating a -9.24 ZR during the season.

CF – Alfredo Suarez, NA – Suarez was so bad at fielding his position that he is in the minor leagues now, but that didn’t stop him from winning the award for last year. He nipped two other outfield captains for the award by garnering a sizzling -12.1 ZR. The award is finally leaving KT, even though Ye Der did his best to try to keep the honorary award in its home city, but -10.3 just won’t cut it this year.

RF – Robbie Roach, CHH – The final Tin Glove handed out tonight is going to be heading to the 3L where the once great Robbie Roach lumbered his way around RF accounting for a -10.2 ZR. He lapped the field in one of the harder positions to be truly horrendous at. He deserves a round of applause for his efforts.

Team Award – New Amsterdam – While this year’s team award winner doesn’t even come close to last year’s Forth Worth team, they are still the runaway winner this year by impressively managing a -35 ZR in the 3L. With two Tin Glove winners on the list, this isn’t a giant shock, but now everyone on the team will also get to take home an award and won’t have to be envious of their teammates inability to field a ball correctly!

The Wiffle Bat

Hitting is half the battle, so it’s safe to assume these guys lost the battle. The Wiffle Bat awards go out to the players who had the lowest wRC+ at their positions.

C – Joram Nelen, PORT – This is always a hard position to find good hitters at, so the competition for worst hitter is always hot and heavy, but Joram Nelen managed to claim the title with a 52 wRC+. Scotty Anderson, the onetime phenom was a very, very close second at 54 wRC+.

1B – SaQwan Hackett, NA – This is supposed to be a position that you can see the true hitting abilities of a player manifest themselves. If this is true, then it’s safe to say that Hackett could not hack it with his 66 wRC+ he put up in the 3L last year.

2B – Jose Paz, CD – Normally at 2B we see some terrible performances from hitters, but this year produced a very bunched crop of hitter. Jose Paz ended up taking home the wiffle bat, but with a 79 wRC+ he shouldn’t be that ashamed. He is still the worst hitting 2B in the league though.

3B Isaac Downey, TOL – The hot corner normally produces some very hot bats and it did this year for sure. However, on the other end of the spectrum you get players like Downey who only managed to put up at 50 wRC+ over the course of a season.

SS – Gabriel Diaz, PORT – Portland had some real issues hitting this year and Diaz’s name can be added to the list as an example of those problems. His 56 wRC+ beat out his fellow teammate on this list, but was still bad enough to get the award for SS.

LF – Dave Morris, PHI – At a position that demands offensive excellence some players are just not able to rise to the challenge. Morris is a great example of that as he managed to eke out a 55 wRC+ and also had the largest gap between himself and the next player on that list.

CF – Jack Burton, TOL – This isn’t going to be the last time you see Burton’s name in this writeup. Manning CF for Toledo must have tired him out, because when he got up to bat he had almost nothing to give. Burton managed only a 21 wRC+ during

RF – Miguel Moran, AUS – The Premier League is a tough league to hit in, and it’s even tougher when you play a position that has some good hitters at it and you are 23 years old. Regardless, Moran took the cake for worst hitter with his paltry 66 wRC+.

DH – Eric Ward, NA – It’s hard to find DHs that hit terrible, because if you can’t then you get benched pretty quick. Ward managed to stay in the lineup long enough to qualify though and had only an 80 wRC+ to show for it.

Worst Trainer Award

The worst trainer award can be looked at in two different ways. Either you can be the worst trainer, because you cause your team to miss the most games or because you cost your team the most money by injuring the most expensive players. Austin’s trainer wins the award for most days missed with 503 days total. While his total salary missed wasn’t as high, much of that can be accredited to the fact that his players were still in arbitration years, not because they were insignificant. Oakland takes home the award for money lost to the deal eclipsing $52 million lost to the DL over 497 days. Congratulations to those two trainers for costing their teams big time.

Jorge Rosa Least Valuable Player Award

I told you that you would see Jack Burton’s name again and here it is. Managing a staggering -2.97 WAR during the course of last year the Toledo CF/DH/LF took home the award for the least valuable player. What makes this even more impressive is that he did that much damage in only 84 games played this season. His slash line, nearly impossible to believe – .144/.225/.187. he truly was a terrible player for Toledo and could almost be singlehandedly blamed for their falter from mid-season darlings to relegation bound team. Wear this badge proud Jack Burton, because no one else comes close to your excellence.